Andy in the Apocalypse: A LitRPG Adventure

Andy in the Apocalypse #1

by Plum Parrot

An action-packed apocalyptic LitRPG perect for fans of Dungeon Crawler Carl, Discount Dan, and The Primal Hunter.

Forty days until the first System invasion. No pressure.
Andy wanted a quiet life—just his trailer, the Sonoran desert, and a job that didn’t ask much of him. Instead, he got a front-row seat to Tucson’s collapse. Magic rewrote the rules. Monsters stalked the streets. People mutated—or died.

He didn’t plan to be a hero. But when the screaming started, Andy grabbed a broken broomstick and did what he does survive.

Now he’s got more than his own skin to worry about—kids looking to him for protection, neighbors turning to him for leadership, and a trailer park slowly transforming into a fortress. The System’s leveling him up—but not fast enough.

Because the countdown’s ticking, the invasions are coming, and if Andy fails, everyone he’s begun to care about will be slaughtered.

From Plum Parrot, the bestselling author of Victor of Tucson, comes a new Apocalyptic LitRPG progression where the System turns Andy's neighbors into monsters, bu he'll transform himself into their nightmare. Perfect for fans of Defiance of the Fall, The Primal Hunter, and Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Genres: Litrpg, Fantasy, Apocalyptic, Magic

571 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 7, 2026

About the author

Plum Parrot is the pen name of author MC Gallup, who grew up in Southern Arizona and spent much of his youth wandering around the Sonoran Desert, hunting imaginary monsters and building forts. He studied creative writing at the University of Arizona and, for a number of years, attempted to teach middle schoolers to love literature and write their own stories. If he's not out walking his Airedale Terrier, you can find Gallup writing, reading his favorite authors, or playing D&D with friends and family.

Reviews

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got bored with this system apocalypse story set just outside Tucson, Arizona (an area I am not unfamiliar with). The setting is evocative; the author does a great job describing it without bogging down or being tedious about the heat.

Andy is a little too in the middle about having to kill some of his neighbors who turned bad with the introduction of the system. I mean, if your neighbor turns into a horror with big claws and unreasoning bloodlust, yeah, take her down. And I'd get grappling with that emotional whiplash. Or being fine. I'd be fine, I think. But Andy kind of waffles around about how he feels about it. A little regret. A little stoic necessity. But mostly just, I dunno, moving on without much care? I mean, care or don't care, but pick one?

And that's kind of the problem altogether. The emotional landscape is amorphous and undefined in a situation where I feel like it should be full of contrast and compromise. I think the final blow came when a character I immediately liked died kind of randomly. I hated both the event and the fallout from it. And that ended my willingness to wait for the emotional palette to clarify.

I'm going to give this one star because of that failure to connect and dropping out after a couple of hours investment. It just didn't grab me and I wasn't at all engaged with Andy as a main character. It doesn't help that the rest of the trailer park inhabitants are kind of listless nonentities riding Andy's coattails with only one and a half exceptions. And I totally wasn't looking forward to the half being a pain to work with because a mute girl is going to be a drag in any action scene even if she is a world class archer...

[J.D. Glasscock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant as always

Plum is my fav author in litrpg..I love all his series.... He is one of best writers in the genre at emotional resonance and realistic dialogue.... And tells a damn good story and always creates great stories...
Highly recommend
JD Glasscock
Author of the Series Blood Brothers, Warborn, and Nocturne

[Christine Antonson · Rating 5 out of 5]

System Apocalypse by the master Plum Parrot!

This story follows Andy a college student who recently dropped out and bought a trailer out in the Arizona desert. Waking up to a system message he finds himself in a situation where electronics have gone down a storm is rolling in and his neighbors turning into monsters.

The style of the book has a well-thought-out system with unique class settings that I have not seen in other system apocalypse series. The story follows mostly Andy but there are many other characters with unique backgrounds and personalities in the trailer park who are all working together to battle this new world together.

I have read all of this authors stories and I can say that this one is worth the read!

If you're looking for a unique system apocalypse story with that PlumpParrot twist you know & love come check out Andy in the Apocalypse! 

[Ryan Gentry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! The best system apocalypse series.

Absolutely love this series. It is, in my opinion, the best of the System Apocalypse stories out there. Andy is very relatable as a protagonist. Capable and competent, yet not an edgelord sociopath like we so frequently get. He mostly works alone but also works well in groups. He social when he needs to be. Very interesting power set and System. This is a great book 1, and as I am current on content at Royal Road, I know this just keeps getting better. Another success by Plum Parrot!

[Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good LitRPG Apocalypse story.

I love the setting of a Litrpg Apocalypse but usually the main character ruins it for me, they tend to be sociopaths that get ridiculously OP super fast and use that to bully everyone around them when their not being a murder hobo. Andy isn't like that he's a pretty chill dude that actually tries to help those around him and is a pretty good dude.

[Danny Moody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good start to an interesting story. I really enjoyed the magic/game system. I’ve read so many LitRPGs with broken systems that allow OP MCs. This system actually seems balanced and does not lead to individuals becoming disproportionately powerful. From that perspective, I found this book to be refreshing. The story and characters were both good too.

[Jeffrey Pratt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great beginning.

A likable and relatable main characters with good supporting characters. I look for this in the genre since most authors ignore these things. I look forward to the next book.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

Stellar work once again from Plum Parrot! Lots of action and adventure, magic and monsters. Looking forward to the next one!

[Linda Mullaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

This story is for the reader who's gotten fed up with overpowered MCs who immediately catch onto the System's intentions and build themselves into unstoppable monsters by the middle of the first book. Andy is an unemployed nice guy who stumbles through the many changes that earth and its surviving population must adapt to. He becomes the reluctant leader of a hodgepodge group of trailer park dwellers who have to come to terms with a new world. The book is well written with few, if any, annoying typos and grammatical errors. I'm looking forward to starting book two.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it!

Plum Parrot is such a good author! Im really excited to see how this new series is going to progress!

[Hugh Honts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding!

I really enjoyed this book. I love these fantasy world shift type stories. The whole idea of our world being converted to Dungeons & Dragons is wild.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andy is a great character and there are many good characters. Good writing. I liked the system, the quests and I found the classes given to people were unique and interesting.

Fights were written well. Overall great book will read book 2.

[Anne V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely nice guy

Fun to read a book where the good guys are actually also realistically nice human beings. Lots of fast paced action and intriguing questions about the new world make this book an excellent read.

[Jace March · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome

I really enjoyed the story, my favourite part in any litrpg is always the beginning. I enjoyed the mc growth and look forward to seeing where the story goes from here.

[Scott Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not put it down

Love a system type apocalypse where there is no tutorial. A unique class for Andy, and a bunch of obstacles. Plus the hints at something more unique. Also great that there a caps and limits.
Can’t wait for the next book!

[Robert L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book

This is a fine fantasy adventure novel. It is well written and edited. I especially like the Mesa. I anxiously await the author's next novel.

[James Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun

It's fairly standard LitRPG, but it is still a lot of fun.

I'm looking forward to the next one.

Highly recommended.

[Jennifer Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I absolutely loved this book. The moment I finished it, I immediately preordered the sequel, which is about the highest praise I can give.

This feels like a dystopian zombie apocalypse novel and a LitRPG had a baby, and somehow the blend works perfectly. The progression system is woven naturally into the world instead of feeling like a video game bolted onto the story. Andy isn’t instantly overpowered. Every level, every new ability, and every victory feels earned, which makes his growth incredibly satisfying to follow.

What really sets this apart is the humanity. The monsters aren’t just faceless enemies. Many of them were once Andy’s neighbors, friends, and ordinary people, and the story never lets you forget that. It also doesn’t shy away from the uglier side of survival, where the greatest threat isn’t always the monsters but the people who are left. Andy is forced to wrestle with impossible moral choices, including when another human has crossed a line that can’t be ignored. Those moments carry real emotional weight instead of being brushed aside.

There’s also the beginning of what looks like a slow-burn romance between the two main characters, and I’m already invested to see where it goes.

This is one of those rare LitRPGs that doesn’t just make you excited for the next level or skill unlock. It makes you think. It makes you feel. If you enjoy progression fantasy, zombie survival, or stories where the emotional stakes are just as important as the action, I can’t recommend this one enough. I need book two immediately.

[Forrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Fairly generic story with some odd choices. I almost gave this 3 stars. I’ll list some complaints to remind me of the details when book 2 is released. But keeping in mind that I will probably read book 2.


MC becomes an Assassin-type shadow based class while wielding a 6 ft long spear. Not the stealthiest of weapons.

Class system is weird and the MC keeps pointing it out. The logic behind the class system seems to be “the author wanted it to happen, so it did.”

Pet peeve of mine is when the MC spends a long time agonizing over the morality of killing people in self defense. This MC straddles that line for me. Spent almost too much time on it. But barely within my ability to keep reading.

Finally, the author likes to give you a lot of warning when something bad is about to happen. The MC sees it coming, describing in detail how he wants to stop it from happening, only for him to fail to make it in time. By the end of the book, I was just like “yeah, he isn’t going to make it this time either. He’ll be sure to beat himself up about this later.”

[Starr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this but omg Andy is a little slow the system explained things so that a simpleton could understand and he still acted clueless the author mafe a point to say he played rpg games so how does he not understand the amount of times he said W-T-H was ridiculous why he acted like he didn't understand is a mystery the system made it as simple as possible and explained everything but other than that annoying bit it alright seems like this is going to be a Andy runs a safe zone story kind of boring 😴 im not really a fan of litrpg books with a mc that is overly involved with a bunch of people oh well have to team up and stay together boo or they just stay in 1 spot the only book I liked that did that was Wormhole Mana Series by Tom Larcombe was really good. This has potential if Andy can stop being dense

[Ozsaur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I'll admit it: when I go into a LitRPG novel, I've come to expect certain things, a few of them negative, like mediocre to bad editing. I cut a lot of slack for independent and self-published authors, so I don't always let the lack of editing get to me.

It's a pleasant surprise when the editing is good, like at the level that I expect from a traditional publisher (and nowadays, even traditional publishers don't always do a good job, so...)

Everything here is well thought out, no plot holes, good pacing with lots of action while also giving enough breathing room for characterization, writing has a nice flow, and very little padding. It was such a pleasure to breeze through this book.

There is some well-trod territory here with a System apocalypse showing up on Earth, but the author brought some fresh ideas to the table.

It was just nice to flow through the book.

[Will Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note to self: pretty good, will keep reading.

My biggest gripe is just how hard the story thought the MC was the MC, and how in denial he was that he was the MC.

And the meetings with the people of the park were annoying, to say the least. No wonder Jake Thayne offloaded all that and ignored it.

Considering how much emphasis was placed on community, and keeping people safe, I would have expected the MC to help people level more. Instead, he was MC about it and went about it alone and shared very little, or late, of his insights. Felt weird.

Regardless, I will keep reading as I'm invested now. Kinda glad the MC didn't run off to florida, and the struggles are local instead of immediately jumping into world-shattering quests before book 2.

[Mr. J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally read this on Patreon, so I am familiar with the story. This review is after listening to the audiobook version. I enjoyed the story. Good characters and a novel system make this a good introduction to the world. It is nearly a slice-of-life pacing as the first book is really only the first 4 days post integration. A lot happens, but it doesn't feel rushed. It's the amount of chaos you could imagine in those first days.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A-park-olypse

College dropout living in Arizona gets a face full of System messages and a new world order when everything changes.

Picking up the spear, he and his group of people navigate the horrors of mana-mutated humans and beasts, if not unscathed, then not crippled.

Lots of focus on community, taking care of your neighbors and not being a POS. Fortunately, the goodies win (or survive) this round.

[Mim Crenshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book

This was a well written new series to get lost in. I loved how the System arrived and how everyone leveled up, but I'm interested to see how they break through their caps. The drama, the fighting, the monsters I loved it all. I just hope that the romance between Andy and Lucy is downplayed and doesn't become bigger than the actual fighting and plot of the upcoming stories.

[Gus Smedstad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a serviceable, if not memorable, LitRPG apocalypse story. It has all the usual beats, magic shows up, technology stops working, monsters show up, hero has to defeat monsters using game classes.

The game system is kind of bare bones and forgettable, but at least the hero isn't a level-focused jerk as is common in books like this. He's mostly focused on surviving and making sure the people around him survive too, which is as it should be.

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pitch-perfect progression fantasy. This LitRPG borrows beautifully from both settlement building and tower defense while giving that full Dungeon Crawler Carl vibe.

Maybe not with the absurdist elements, but definitely the system interference.

Suffice to say, I'm immediately drawn in and I'm here to stay. I can't wait for the next. But then, I've been devouring all of Plum Parrot's series and I feel the same way about Victor of Tuscon.

I feel like I'm eating very well. :)

[Crazybooklvr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous read!

Great beginning to a new series, especially for those not familiar with the Lit-RPG genre. This story was rivitating & entertaining from beginning to end & made me really stop & think how I would cope in the situations they had to deal with. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book.

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine. Definitely didn’t hit the same level as Cyber Dreams, and I’m already dreading the forced romance between the main two characters.

If you like the genre, this scratches the itch well enough. If you’re looking for cyber dreams quality stuff, seek elsewhere.

[Dantegideon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine but the particular flavour of this one is that vaguely down-to-earth style, you know, character points are few and far between, he spends whole chapters scraping through battles with a broken broomstick, that kind of thing. Some people prefer that but it's not for me.